


Spice Up Your Life

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-22
Updated: 2012-09-22
Packaged: 2017-11-14 19:50:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/518905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You're one of the good guys…a keeper as my mother would say.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spice Up Your Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is not part of the Starting Over universe and falls somewhere early in Hotch and Beth’s relationship. Thanks to blue-sunflowers from Tumblr and the prompt ‘telephone call to ask for a date while Hotch is on the plane coming home’.

“Hi.” Hotch answered his phone after it buzzed on his hip. 

The plane was dimly lit and quiet. They were flying back from Tigard, Oregon where they worked a tough case of a killer preying on the elderly. No case was ever easy but those were harder than most. Everyone wanted to protect people who couldn’t protect themselves for whatever reason. Living somewhere relatively safe and having that comfort ripped from you was never an easy thing to comprehend or move past. It would be a long time, if ever, before Tigard was the same.

“You know what I was thinking about?” Her bubbly voice came through like a warm blanket on a cold night. It wasn’t enough to set into his bones completely, over the phone never was, but Hotch stopped trembling. “I was thinking it might be fun to cook something together. I don’t mean like spaghetti, though that was fun. 

“I thought maybe something challenging, like those shows you sometimes watch on The Food Network. My friend Nancy and her husband say cooking together keeps the spice in a relationship. And I'm not thrusting spice on you Aaron, I swear you're spicy enough, I just…”

“You can't sleep.” Hotch said.

“What?”

“You can't sleep. While I definitely can't say I find insomnia adorable, I do find you adorable when you have it.” he lowered his voice when he spoke. He probably shouldn’t even be on his cell phone but her voice was just what he needed right now.

“I can sleep.” Beth said. “I would just rather talk to you. Now what do you have to say about that, Mr. FBI man?”

“I don’t think I'm that spicy.”

Beth laughed. Just thinking of the way her eyes crinkled and how her dimples poked holes in her cheeks made Hotch smile too. She was becoming someone special to him. They hadn't been dating long, almost five months, but he felt something. Putting it into words would never be easy. 

Hotch had only done this once before in his life. It was so long ago and he was sure that his relationship with Haley working had nothing to do with him. She took pity on an ensorcelled young man. With Beth he was walking a high wire without a safety net. She seemed to understand that somehow, again with little help from him.

“Well at least you don’t give me heartburn. I’ll give you a big hug for that when I see you.”

“Just a hug?” Hotch asked.

“You want a shoulder rub as well?”

“I…” he was grinning and couldn’t stop. Hotch chastised himself but it was useless. It wasn’t as if there was no grinning on the jet ever, it just wasn’t his M.O. He was the leader and the team led by example. Of course the team was sound asleep or faking it until they got there. 

He was alone and could do things just a little differently. He knew as soon as he picked up the phone he was a goner. There was no way Hotch was letting it go to voicemail. Talking to her, feeling her energy even from far away was a pleasure. “I could rub your shoulders if you like.”

“Ooh, I like.” She laughed again. “Will you be home soon?”

“We’re somewhere in the middle of the sky right now but I’ll be home before sunrise. I should also be free this weekend.”

“So do you want to plan our date?”

“Your idea sounds great. I think we can add a little wine and maybe a _Thin Man_ marathon…”

“You are laying it on so thick, Hotchner.”

“You ain't seen nothing yet.”

“Oh yeah; tell me more.” she said.

“I would love to. I'm going to talk to you until I'm blue in the face. I haven’t seen you in almost two weeks.”

“I know, and that sucks. But you’ve got to save the world. It’s hard for the hero to do all that and have a love life too.”

“I'm not a hero.” Hotch replied.

“All heroes say that.”

“Beth…”

“What? You’re not going to make me think different. I truly admire the man you are and what you do everyday. You're one of the good guys…a keeper as my mother would say.”

“I appreciate it.”

“I only say it because it’s true. I've seen my share of deadbeats, though I surely hope I'm not an expert on the subject.”

“But you’ve had good relationships too, right?”

The truth was Hotch didn’t know a whole lot about Beth’s dating past. He knew of the guy she almost married but didn’t know his name. She was nearly 40 so surely had done her fair share of dating. Most people weren't as far behind as he was. He remembered Emily saying that she’d dated worse guys than Viper. He wondered if Beth would say the same. Women didn’t always have it easy.

“Eric in high school was a personal favorite.” She said.

“High school was a really long time ago.”

“Is that a crack about my age, mister?”

“No, I just meant…you’re pulling my chain aren’t you?”

“Mmm hmm. I'm not joking about Eric though. He was a great guy who used to do donuts in the school parking lot on a dirt bike with me on the back. For my 16th birthday he got us tickets to see Tesla, Poison, and Warrant at The Palace. It was still one of the best shows I've ever been to. You don’t know the concert experience until about 10,000 people are all singing _Talk Dirty to Me_.”

“So what broke you guys up?” Hotch asked.

“He went away to West Point right before my senior year. We both decided that long distance was going to be really difficult. We were young and shouldn’t be so serious. I was devastated but pretended not to be. I didn’t want him to think I loved him more than he loved me. It was probably the truth but I didn’t want him knowing.”

“I certainly know about that. Sometimes a relationship, whether its friendship or more than that, isn’t supposed to go past a certain moment in time. If you take it even one day past that point, it’s destroyed.”

“That’s not a pleasant thought.” Beth said. “How do you even know you’re moving close to the end of the line.”

“Most people won't acknowledge it until they look behind them and see it. When we’re enamored, in love, we ignore the red flags and signs. This is just a generalization…everyone is different.”

“Sadly, most of the time they're not. I miss Eric sometimes but I'm sure that all of these years later I've totally idealized him, you know. I bet if you asked my dad he would've said that he was a teenage douchebag.”

“It’s a father’s job to say that about any guy you bring home. I can admit to being very glad that Jack is a little boy for just that reason. If I had a daughter I think my hair might turn white before my 50th birthday. In fact I'm sure it would.”

“I can admit to being a handful for my parents but you’ll get nothing else out of me.” Beth laughed a little.

“My brother could be a handful sometimes.” Hotch said. “I think he still is.”

“My brother was perfect. At least it gave my parents one less thing to worry about. So um, we’ll see each other this weekend.”

“Most definitely.” He smiled. “You pick the meal. We’ll shop together, cook, enjoy each other’s company, and forget for a little while that I have a job that makes this dating thing quite difficult.”

“You do alright, Hotchner; don’t sell yourself short. Text me when you land safely.”

“I hope you’ll be asleep by then.”

“I don’t care. I’ll wake up to it and smile.”

Hotch loved her smile first thing in the morning. Beth was such a beautiful woman, inside and out. He was taken aback by the feelings he had for her and how quickly they tackled him. Other people might have experienced something like that many times in their lives but he’d only experienced it once. He was a boy then and now he was a man. 

A man who knew darkness, pain, and the worse people could do to each other. Still, with Beth he didn’t have to think about any of that. It was there, always there, but not the focus. After Haley’s death Hotch was sure that Jack would be the only person who could ever truly brighten the dark roads in his mind. Being wrong about that was surprisingly refreshing.

“I’ll text you.” he said.

“Good; and I’ll see you soon.”

“I'm really looking forward to it.”

“So am I Aaron. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Beth.”

He didn’t want to hang up but he did, and put the phone down on the table top. There were only two days until the weekend. He planned to spend most of Sunday with Jack, who was staying with Jessie and Sam while he was out of town. That meant he could spend most of Saturday with Beth. Juggling this kind of schedule was nearly impossible. 

He never wanted Jack to feel as if he wasn’t getting enough of the attention he deserved. Between work and everything else, it was easy to neglect dad duties. Then there were times Hotch worried Beth would feel as if she wasn’t getting enough time. He wanted that special time with her; just the two of them. That’s what dating was all about. 

They could have fun with Jack but time as adults, to do adult things, was very important. How did single parents do this? There had to be a book or something on the subject. Maybe he would check Amazon. For now he just leaned back and smiled, thinking about a weekend off. Beth on Saturday, Jack on Sunday, and Hotch would sleep when he was dead.

***


End file.
